When two heroes like the Flash and Arrow struggle each other , who wins ? ! turn out the TV audience do , because the appropriately titled episode “ The Flash Vs . Arrow ” — the first one-half of the two - part event that extend in tonight ’s Arrow — was simply phenomenal .
badly ! This would order as one of the best instalment of Arrow ever , and it ’s the beneficial installment of The Flash by a land mile . It ’s absolutely incredible how much the arrival of Oliver Queen and his team in Central City does to better every expression of the show ,
But most of all , “ The Flash Vs . Arrow ” was just massively entertaining . It was fun , odd , action - packed , dramatic , it advanced the Flash ’s characters and his relationship — and it deepened the Arrow and his crowd as well ! That ’s awful . And if the sequence hit the intimate fib beats that seem to be required whenever to superheroes get together each other , it hit them with such sincerity that it never felt like the show was drag , but or else tell a Hellenic superhero story , do with skill , efficiency , and joyousness . It was awing .
I almost detest to recap it for you guys ; please , trust me , if for any reason you lose this instalment and thought you ’d study this first to see how it went , please hold on immediately — go watch the episode , and then come back . You ask to authentically experience it , and then come back and conjoin this festivity of a maledict ok episode of television .
After an particularly lovey - dovey narration from Barry — since as the Flash , he ’s getting along really well with Iris — we rationalize to a robbery where the robber simply walks in the bank vault as the bank building patrons begin a loose - for - all fight among themselves . Turns out this guy is a metahuman with the power to essentially enrage masses ; it ’s all the Flash can do to bar the do while Prism ( as Cisco dubs him ) escapes .
Thanks to a tracker in the money he stole , Prism is catch by Joe and the CCPD in one of the million warehouse that populate Central and Starling cities . But all Prism has to do is whammy ( as the SuperSTARS term it ) one of the pig to enrage him into firing at his fellow cops with his scattergun ; the Flash runs in and saves Joe , but is about to get rack up with a second crack when the crazed police officer is hit by two arrows . The first sign this episode is go to be swell is the huge grin that break over the Flash ’s face when he realizes Ollie ’s in town . ( Prism , of course , escapes again . )
As it turn out , Ollie ’s in town with Felicity and Diggle to inquire the mysterious boomerang used to kill a man in Starling in the last instalment of Arrow . The backfire is made from branding iron oxide , and Central City bring forth a stack of iron oxide , so Felicity imagine they should start there ( which is admittedly completely dull — that ’s like saying , “ Well , the killer attend his victims with circle . So where is rope made ? ” ) . Barry right away asks for a team - up — he ’ll help Ollie and Ollie can facilitate him catch Prism — but of course the inexorable Ollie says no . Felicity say she does n’t worry what Ollie desire and buck a ride with the Flash back to STAR Labs , where she can do a more thorough depth psychology on the throwing stick .
lend the dispirited Arrow into the abstemious world of the Flash changes the dynamic of the show a great deal , and thing immediately get shaken up by Oliver ’s arrival . First and foremost , the Flash is well-chosen to have a peer , but is kind of dismayed to pull in Oliver does n’t view him one . Barry place out he has superpowers , while Ollie counters with the fact that he ’s had eight years of his life devoted to shoot bad guys with arrow , and that matter more . It ’s an interesting argument made even better by the contest where Ollie bets he can hit Barry with an pointer — and thanks to a crossbow trap , Oliver wins , proving his point . Twice . In Barry ’s back .
But even better is the fact that not everyone in The Flash casting is excited by the arrival of the Arrow — in fact , both Joe and Wells require him gone . Joe still holds Ollie ’s season one murder spree against him — go public figure — while Wells is equally against him , because the Arrow is an nameless , and he does n’t need anybody mess up with his mysterious plans for the Flash . Wells even asks Felicity for the Arrow ’s name in one of his creepier moments ; Felicity refuses , and Wells ominously enounce he ’ll visualise it out on his own . Meanwhile , Joe ’s thought of the Arrow does n’t change when Ollie gets Prism ’s real name — Roy G. Bigelow , of course of study , better make out in the comics as the Flash Rogue named the Rainbow Raider — by shoot down a storage social unit safety in the leg with an pointer . Joe calls it anguish , and he ’s not wrong ; but we ’ve gotten so used to take how Oliver does things on Arrow that his appearance in the gay world of the Flash reminds us how Ollie ’s mission still is n’t so black and white .
Between Ollie ’s seeming sack of his power , the fact that Eddie Thawne wants to make an anti - Flash task power , and then overtake Eddie and Iris in a bit of PDA , Barry ’s in a bad mode . When Roy G. is located , he foolishly decide to charm him himself — and then , despite knowing exactly what Prism does and how he does it — manage to get himself whammied anyhow .
And thus commence The Flash ’s court to Evil Peter in Spider - Man 3 . Okay , it ’s not nearly as cockamamie , and it does n’t involve any terpsichore or finger hitman , but the Flash does playact increasingly like a jerk to everyone , from fundamentally shout “ news bulletin rule , Arrow drools ” at Ollie when he try out to stage another training session , bitch at the chief of police , and even freaking out on Iris . The SuperSTARS somewhat apace visualize out something is wrong with Barry , and Wells verrrrry smugly announces they better ask Oliver Queen for help . ( He successfully figured it out on his own . ) By the prison term Arrow catches up with the Flash , Barry is basically manhandling Eddie , ripping him out of a copper car and throw away him violently around in front of a screaming Iris .
Describing the fight panorama will not do it Justice Department ; not because it was it ground - breaking or expensive or anything like that , but because it was just so well done . It was cagy , it was well choreographed , the fight seemed comely even though the Flash had superpowers , the combat did n’t need to de - power the Flash in order for Ollie to have a chance , and there were a few moments that authentically made my jaw drop , even on a CW show budget . Hey , Berlanti Productions — give yourselves a round of hand clapping . You deserve it , guys .
Whenever two superheroes fight , it ’s rare that one wins or loses — broadly it ’s a association , and so it is here . After the Flash essentially unleash a combo breakers on Arrow , Ollie bewilder a … throw pointer ( I guess you ’d call it ? ) in Barry ’s branch , grabbing him and forcing him to look at a van that somehow Wells and Joe have modded with a giant lightshow in the passenger room access , which defuse Barry ’s fury issue . It ’s a completely ridiculous terminal , and I did n’t manage in the least . I ’ve said it before , but I only seem for plotholes when I ’m bored , and “ The Flash vs. Arrow ” completely entertain me . sure as shooting , I noticed this rather goodish plothole , but I do n’t care in the slightest . I care even less that Ollie and Barry apparently capture Prism off - screen door , during a commercial break . Who cares about that jolt ? More Arrow and Flash teaming up , please !
But perhaps the best thing about this episode is that the writers do n’t catch one’s breath on their laurels ( or Laurel , for that matter ) . Even though a fight with Arrow could have been an easy stand - alone instalment , The Flash expend it to advance several plots relationship , include the fact thanks to the Flash ’s freakout , Eddie gets put in bang of his own special anti - Flash taskforce ; and thanks to beating up on Eddie , Iris assure the Flash to get turn a loss , which is a very big change in their relationship . Even Arrow gets a likely cost increase — felicitousness leaves the DNA of Sarah Lance ’s killer for the whiz to study , which will almost sure enough make up off in an forthcoming Arrow ep .
What could make this instalment any better ? Two things : 1 ) the fact we ’re getting another team - up on Arrow tonight , and 2 ) last night ’s episode finish with the first appearance of goddamned Firestorm . He ’s huddling under an flyover , clear disturbed . Then he ’s disturbed and on fervour . Fun !
Seriously , if tonight ’s Arrow episode is even half as great as “ The Flash vs. Arrow ” was , we ’re in for another monolithic treat .
Assorted Musings :
• There were so many genuinely screaming moments in this sequence I could write another thousand Holy Writ just quoting them all , but Diggle ’s junky - out by Barry ’s powers is definitely my favourite . He ’s just totally bowl over by insure the Flash . “ I had a full cousin who was hit by lightning , ” he enounce almost accusatorially . “ He just develop a stutter . ”
• Wells starts ramble on about hatred , anger , fearfulness , and Cisco — like jolly much every single person find out the show — immediately bring out into a Yoda stamp : “ These are the paths to the Dark Side ! ” Respect , Cisco . We all would have done the accurate same thing .
• Some of the fun new aspects of his power Barry expose in this instalment : vibrating a whorl until it falls out of a door , vibrating himself and allow Equus caballus antianxiety agent ( put there by Arrow during their fight ) to disperse .
• Oliver Queen is on Iris ’ list of celebrities she ’s earmark to cheat on on Eddie with . Barry is in a special kind of hell when he get wind that , and it ’s spectacular .
• Who assume that Wells discovered Oliver ’s individuality with his future paper database ? If that ’s the case , then it may mean that Wells has n’t lived through the future yet — he ’s just gotten peeks at it , hence his need to search for information like this .
• Caitlin : “ Since when do we have facial recognition computer software ? ”
Felicity : “ Happy Hanukkah ! ”
• Cisco , bewilder another in effect argument when the Flash has turned malign and needs to be terminate : “ A cold-blooded gun would number in real William Christopher Handy right now . Just sayin ’ . ”
• Diggle contend with Caitlin and Cisco over who ’s run short to win the Arrow / Flash fight . It would be an obnoxious scene if felicitousness herself did n’t also see it completely obnoxious and manoeuver it out as audience foster .
• Holy shit , that fair sex in the coffee shop was Sandra , the daughter Ollie knock up and his mom Moira compensate to skip town and never talk to her son again in a flashback last season . Sandra ( work by Defiance ’s Anna Hopkins ) calls her kid on the phone , so manifestly Ollie definitely has a slight pointer running around . Is this break down to be part of an on-going story , a slight easter egg for rooter , or a cautiously incline ejaculate of a potential storyline somewhere in the futurity ?
• There was no closing narrative in tonight ’s episode , and man , was it great . find spare to carry on not spelling out generic spirit lessons at the remainder , Flash .
• “ We call him Captain Cold . ”
“ We can spill the beans about you giving your enemies cockamamy nicknames later . ”
“ You mean like over coffee tree with Deathstroke and Huntress ?
yesssssssssssss
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